Boulder announced the release of the 1160 stereo power amplifier, the successor to their 1060 model and the first product in the new mid-level 1100 Series, which combines new technology and exceptional performance with reduced size, power and cost.
According to the press release, the 1100 Series offers a substantial advancement over the previous 1000 Series, with improvements in sound quality by way of better thermal management, ground paths, noise floor, and circuit layout. The increased use of surface-mount technology, manufactured on Boulder’s own surface-mount manufacturing machines and ovens, has also yielded improvements in noise radiation, propagation delay, parasitic capacitance and the elimination of lead inductance in affected circuits. It also offers improvements in unit-to-unit quality and consistency and long-term reliability. Also new for the 1160 is the use of a 64-bit, multi-core ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) processor for all supervisory functions, including management of protection circuits, AC line monitoring, power, thermal detection, error notification, and HTML- or IP-based external control.
Gain stages within the 1160 are Boulder’s proprietary 983, which are unique to the 1100 Series. The 983 gain stages feature surface-mount mechanical design with board-mounted heatsinks and provide the initial 20 dB of gain in a multi-stage design for exceptionally wide bandwidth. They combine discrete and monolithic design with a high-current output.
The 1160 utilizes 56 bipolar output devices (28 per channel), 48 filter capacitors and 2 toroidal power transformers to generate power output of up to 300 watts per channel into any load, enabling massive current swings and the ability to drive any loudspeaker to realistic audio levels, the company states. Continuous power output of the 1160 is 300W per channel into 8 ohms, with peak output power doubling into 4 ohms (600W), 2 ohms (1200W). All audio circuitry is full differentially balanced. Outputs include dual connections for bi-wiring.
The physical design of the 1160’s external casework has evolved, with the heatsinks’ hard corners and chamfers being replaced with small radii and curves. The front panel has also been changed to reflect Boulder’s local geography. The layered front panel design is -actually- a reproduction of the topographical map of Flagstaff Mountain, located directly west of Boulder, Colorado.